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Wednesday, March 21, 2018

Home School in the Woods À La Carte REVIEW

Do you have artsy kids or kids that just like to have fun with hands-on activities for homeschool learning? Home School in the Woods has wonderful products that will meet these desires. If you don't want to purchase an entire project or just want to sample some of their products then take a look at their À La Carte products. Some are stand alone products and others are part of a larger package deal. I love that you can try a sample without purchasing the entire package deal. Also, sometimes we just need to use a part of one and don't need any of the extras.

I chose two of their products that included The Art of Quilling and Name That State! File Folder Game. I had honestly never heard of quilling before but after I looked at it I thought it might be a perfect fit for my artsy 8th-grade son who just loves to create. The state game was a no-brainer for me since I wanted to introduce my K5 daughter to the states and the 8th grader can always use a review!

Name That State! File Folder Game

I was sadly disappointed when my son said he WAS NOT going to do the quilling, said he was NOT interested at all. Well, once I started to print and prepare for the project guess what? He was intrigued and before it was all over he ended up really liking it and wants to do more!

The Art of Quilling

The Name That State! File Folder Game took some time to set up, but once done, it produced a nice reusable, fun game that can be easily adapted to provide more of a challenge as things get easy. I love File Folder Games because they are just that, created on a file folder that fits neatly away in your filing cabinet when you are done! It was an easy PDF download. The document provided all the instructions I needed to create the game and included 3 versions of the states map and the necessary game cards. You can print the states map with it all blank (no states or abbreviations listed), with the full state name, or just the state abbreviations. I printed the full state name so that little bug could play with big brother and learn her states too!

PDF download showing 2 versions of states map

I really like that the document contained two versions of masters. One for if you don't have a duplex printer and need to manually duplex and another for duplexing if you have a printer that does duplex. I REALLY like this since I have a duplexing printer and it is such a pain when documents are not set up for duplexing.

Finished game (forgot to show the hole punch game pieces)

This is a FILE FOLDER game so you, of course, need a file folder, preferably colored just for fun. I printed out my choice of the states map (the one with the full state name), colored the map and then laminated it. I love to laminate things that are going to be used over and over so they last over time. I followed the instructions on how to glue it to the folder. Then I printed out the game cards on colored paper and laminated them before cutting them out. Finally we just paper hole punched out a bunch of dots to use as playing pieces. I store all the loose game board pieces in plastic sandwich zipped bags.

Little Bug and big brother practicing the states

To set the game up you just open the folder, place the game cards state side up in the designated place on the game board and give a stack of colored hole punch pieces to each player. The first person draws a card and tries to name the state. If they get the answer right, they place one of their game pieces (hole punch) on that state. The person with the most game pieces on the board when the game is over of course wins. I love that this game can be adapted and used from the simplest to a more complex challenge. With the states full name listed you can simply play as I stated with just guessing the state. The game cards also have the capital, rank (what place they are in becoming a state i.e. 2nd, 3rd, etc), year entered the union, and what region (central, midwest, etc). There are even blanks on each card for you to fill more in like state bird or flower, etc. You can have them guess any of the other answers for more of a challenge and chance to put more game pieces on the board.

Back of game card with answers and blanks

Each game card has a compass rose that shows the player which direction is North. This is helpful if they are trying to guess the state but might have the game card in the wrong orientation which can make guessing more difficult. With the game card facing the correct direction, the player can more easily see which state it is or have an easier time matching it with the states map game board. I am counting on this to help teach my K5 daughter to learn her states. She is great at matching and if she can match the shape, she will learn.

PDF download of instructions

The Art of Quilling was also a simple PDF download. All the instructions were included and it even told us how we could make our own homemade quilling tool (which we did!). One free template was also included. We chose to cut our own paper strips. It is such a simple and fun craft activity. The challenge is learning to adjust your coils and shape them as needed.

We used a paper cutter to get even, straight 1/4" strips

We chose 5 colors for this project

Learning about the different ways to shape the coils

Basically, you use a quilling tool (to coil the paper), cut paper strips (can be easily purchased at craft store), something to adhere your creation to (paper, cardstock, wood, cork, whatever base you want), and some glue to adhere the coils and paper with. We tried both white school glue and a hot glue gun which both dry clear (necessary for this craft). We preferred the white school glue for neatness and ease of use.

Work in progress

Finished project (using free template included)

If you look on the internet the creations are endless with what you can create. We will definitely be doing more of this and thank Home School in the Woods for introducing us to this really fun activity.